dancing in the dark (with you between my arms)
by PerfumedWithObsession
Summary: Rory decides that no matter what, she's going to stay with skating, stay with Chase. Because somehow in the year and a half that she's known him, he's become her best friend in the entire world. And skating, skating (if wasn't already before) has become her life. Aka the Chase and Rory ice skating au no one needed.


Hi! So I'm back with this skating au involving Chase and Rory that's pretty heavily influenced by the lives of Tessa Virtue and Scott Moir who are Canadian pairs skaters who are insanely cute (and who I totally recommend you look up).

This is the first part of a multi chapter fic (though it could work on it's own) but I'm not sure how much of it I'll be posting on here. If you're really interested in keeping tabs on this fic, please check out the Ever After Series AO3 (just google Ever After Series Shelby Bach AO3 and you'll find the site). I really prefer the format on that site for posting and replying to comments and I feel as though there are more people posting on that site.

I really hope you like the fic and please comment what you think!

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The first time Rory ever meets Chase Turnleaf, she's 11 and she's been skating for as long as she can remember.

She's just moved to San Francisco and this is her first time being at any ice rink and feeling this much anticipation. Her new coach, Ellie, who she's only known for a few weeks now, has told her some much about Chase, about how amazing they'll be skating together that she's almost worried that the image she's created of him is too much.

He enters the room He looks like he's her age and he's blond and he's waving and it's all a bit weird because this person is who she's going dancing with.

"Hi." He calls out to her as he skates towards her on the ice. She moves a little closer to Ellie, as though she'll protect him from this boy even though it's obvious that Ellie absolutely adores him.

"Hello."

He's skating around her slowly, showing off, trying to see if it'll shake her, "Chase."

"Rory. Nice to meet you."

He nods, "You too."

Ellie's grinning as though all of her dreams are coming true right before her eyes, "I'm so excited for your guys' partnership." She says, pushing Rory in front of her and closer to Chase. "You are both so talented, you'll be amazing together!"

(At this point it's relatively obvious that he's as good as Ellie says he is.)

Ellie sends them to do a lap around the track, hand in hand, just to get a feel for one another. He's still trying to show off which is strange because it's relatively obvious to her at this point that he's pretty good.

And since he's so keen to showing off, she decides that maybe it wouldn't be a bad idea to show off a little herself.

And that's how they end up speeding around the rink doing mini twirls together right after they've first met.

When Adelaide first tells Chase that she's done with skating, he freaks out.

They've been skating together for almost 4 years at this point. They're best friends and she's leaving him for ballet school in New York, all the way across the country. It doesn't make any sense to him. He thought that she loved ice dancing as much as he does.

But it's obvious to him at this moment that she doesn't.

"I'm sorry Chase." Adelaide says and he can tell that she is, "But you deserve a better partner then me, someone who's actually dedicated to the sport."

"But you're the best there is."

She's crying now (he hates crying), "No I'm not."

He takes a deep breath and approaches her, holding out his arms. She leans into him, composing herself slowly before continuing.

"And it's ballet Chase. It's my dream."

"I know." And he does.

She leaves a week later and he misses her like crazy. They'd been dancing together for years, ever since they were little. While all the other kids were afraid of holding hands because of cooties, they were dancing on the ice, as close as could be.

And he knows that at some point this would happen. She's been training more and more for ballet, leaving him alone at the rink. This school is her dream just like ice dancing is his.

So he lets her go with a sad wave and a promise to facetime as soon as she gets there.

He thinks that maybe he'll train a little as an individual skater, but then, less then a week after Adelaide leaves, Ellie comes into practice much more excited than usual.

"I've found you a new partner," She says, grinning from ear to ear and he frowns a little.

"I thought I'd just dance by myself for a little while, test that out."

Ellie shakes her head quickly, "Well I mean you can if you'd like, but you really should at least meet her. She's brand new to the area, from LA, and she's absolutely amazing."

Chase thinks to himself, weighing the options, "Has she done pairs skating before?"

Ellie's grin disappears momentarily, "Well no… but you really should see her skate, it's breathtaking, and I really do think you two would be good together."

Chase sighs, realising that he has very little choice in this matter, "Fine, I'll meet up with her."

He doesn't end up meeting her for another week, but when he finally does, even after their first practice, he knows that they'll work.

At the beginning, he tries his hardest to intimidate her, to get her to back off and decide against pairs skating, but as they skate around the rink together, he can tell that she's as good as Ellie says.

They do twirls during their first practice, and it's amazing because he doubts him and Adelaide could ever do something like that.

So, at that moment on the ice with her for the first time, Chase decides that this girl will be her partner and that they'll be going places.

(Places like the Olympics.)

They train and train and already, at 11 years old, are winning competitions.

Once upon a time Adelaide Radcliffe dreamt of Olympic figure skating gold. And she trained and trained and found herself a partner who wanted it as much as she did.

But then one day her coach tells her to ballet class to "work on her fundamentals", and she finds herself falling hard for an art she barely even knew about before.

And suddenly, her every spare moment is dedicated to that art.

She takes class after class when she really should be practicing with Chase at the rink. He's there alone most of the time now. He pretends not to notice her absence from the rink, but they're skating becoming bad and their scores at competitions drop and he can't help but be a little angry at her.

"You're not taking this seriously!" Chase yells at her after a particularly terrible practice.

"Well I'm sorry that I'm not obsessed with this sport like you anymore, that I don't spend my every waking moment on the ice!" She yells back.

"That's because you're obsessed with ballet instead."

She doesn't respond to that.

So while she falls in love with ballet, her dreams of Olympic skating gold die.

But she didn't realise this until she gets into The School of American Ballet in New York and almost declines because she thinks to herself, "No thanks, I'm good, I already have a dream." But that's the thing, it's not her dream anymore. It's his.

So she leaves him for ballet knowing that he'll find someone better, someone who wants it just as much as he does.

She just doesn't expect him to find them so fast (especially someone as amazing as _her_ ).

Aurora Landon is perfect in every way Adelaide is not.

At school in New York, the other girls call Adelaide cold because of her perfect, emotionless routines.

But Rory, everything about her is full of life. The way she wears her heart on her sleeve as she skates. The way she lets everyone fall in love with her without even realising she's doing it.

It's no wonder why Chase is so infatuated with her.

But the thing is Adelaide was sort of hoping that maybe she could get Chase to fall in love (not _love_ love, more like _like_ ) with her if only for a moment so she could maybe be known as something other than cold and emotionless by the other girls.

Being known as the girl who's perfect and has a hot boyfriend back home is better than being known as emotionless (if only barely).

But that's just wishful thinking, Adelaide realises almost immediately after she arrives in San Francisco. Even if Adelaide really wanted to, she could never take Chase from Rory because he wouldn't want to leave.

Rory skates so gracefully and with so much emotion. She's the perfect partner for Chase and the entire time Adelaide is there, she hears endlessly about Rory's own dreams of Olympic skating gold.

So Adelaide leaves a little early with no more physical proof of her visit than a poorly taken picture of the Golden Gate Bridge. However, she returns to New York and with her takes that little piece of herself that she didn't even really realize she left with Chase and skating and throws it into ballet.

Because she's going to be the best no matter what, and she promises herself that she'll regret none of it.

The first time Rory meets Adelaide Radcliffe, she's introduced by Chase as his old skating partner.

"So _you're_ Chase's new partner," Adelaide says looking her over.

Rory nods, "Yeah. And you're his old partner?"

Adelaide nods back. "Yep."

They skate around the rink a little bit, and Rory's pretty sure that Chase is trying to show off their partnership to Adelaide who doesn't seem to think that much of it.

Adelaide's skating around casually, as though none of it really matters to her and Rory and Chase show off their new routine.

And very quickly, as she watches Adelaide's indifference, Rory decides that no matter what, she's going to stay with skating, stay with Chase. Because somehow in the year and a half that she's known him, he's become her best friend in the entire world.

And skating, skating (if wasn't already before) has become her life.

She's not sure how Adelaide managed to leave. Rory can't even begin to imagine giving up everything she'd ever known for an art like Adelaide did.

And Chase, Rory, even at this point when she hasn't even know him for two full years, can't imagine ever skating without him again. When they're on the ice together, they're unstoppable.

So when Adelaide leaves, Rory throws herself even deeper into training because one day, they're going to be the best in the world. They're going to win gold at the Olympics.

That's their dream, and there's nothing that can stop them.

And they work really well together.

For example, they have this one free dance that they do to classical music that used to seem so serious until Chase started to make up funny lyrics to go along with it.

"Bring me my Starbucks," He belts out as they do a simple lift. It's a wonder how he doesn't drop her seeing as how hard she's shaking with laughter.

Rory's practically crying from laughter when her puts her down and they have to take a quick break to regain their composure.

Ellie, who has put up with them for far too long to be too annoyed, merely shakes her head, a small smile on her own face too.

"Settle down you two." She calls out from the side of the rink. "You need to take this more seriously."

So after they can look each other in the eye once more without bursting into a fit of laughter, they do the lift once more.

And it's perfect.

They win a bronze medal in the junior division even though they're the smallest skaters there.

It's crazy and amazing and (if this is even possible) they fall even more in love with skating.

Chase isn't exactly sure how he feels about Michigan.

Sometimes it seems like it's just him and Rory against the world.

They've moved to Michigan so they can skate with the Arctic Figure Skating Club under some of the best coaches in the world. And while their skating has definitely improved, it sort of lonely being there, just the two of them.

He's 16 now and able to drive (so is she but she hates it), so he'll drive them to and from the rink most days.

The coaches here are much harsher than Ellie. Their new head coach, called Hansel by his skaters, doesn't seem to like them all that much, and Chase really misses Ellie.

"The Olympics are in two year and you two want to go as much as say you do, you'll need to work twice as hard on this routine. Understand" Hansel shouts at them after a particularly bad lift, and they both nod.

"Good."

They go over the routine again trying twice as hard (though Chase isn't exactly sure how this is possible since they seem to have been trying their hardest before) and Hansel seems to be satisfied .

After practice though, when Chase is searching for Rory so he can drive her back to the house she's staying at, he hears her crying in the women's changing room.

And he know that it's her.

He also knows that he probably shouldn't go in, but they're the only ones at the rink and he can't stand to hear Rory crying.

"Hey Rory, it's me." He calls out, only opening the door to the changing room slightly to offer her a chance to tell him off. When he hears nothing for a second but the occasional stifled sniffle, he says, "You okay."

He hears rapid sniffling, "Yeah, I'm fine." She calls back even though it's obvious that she's not.

"Can I come in?" He asks.

"Yeah."

So he opens the door the rest of the way and makes his way towards the bench that she's sitting on.

He half hopes that she's not crying because he hates it when people cry, but he'd stand it for her, he'll do anything for her.

"You sure that you're okay?"

Rory's wiping her eyes. They're puffy and red and Chase wonders how long she was crying before he came in.

She half nods her head before shaking it quickly, "No." Rory admits, leaning her head back and blinking away more tears.

He's just about to ask for an explanation when she turns to him, "It's just so much, you know. Like, we're away from home and I haven't seen my mom in forever, and my younger sister was just born but I can't fly out to see her because we have practice everyday for the rest of our life it seems like.

"And I know this is all for our dream, this is all for the Olympics, but I just miss home, you know."

He nods, "Yeah, I know exactly what you mean." And he does.

He tells her about how he remembers when he was younger and his older brother Cal went to Nationals for pairs skating with his girlfriend Dyani and came home with a bronze and how he didn't want to go back because he said he missed home too much. He remembers missing him like crazy. And now, he knows what it's like to be living away from home at such a young age and dedicating yourself to a dream.

He's known for a while that his life is never going to be normal. He missed his chance for a normal life. His life has always been about skating and he can't imagine it being about anything else. He's happy with his life and he wouldn't change anything, but sometimes he does wonder what it would've been like if he'd grown up and lived a normal life.

If he would've ever met Rory.

They would've been in high school now. Maybe they would have been best friends like they are now. Maybe they would have been dating.

But right now, he pulls her close as she rests her head against his shoulder and they breathe.

And he's pretty sure that this is the moment where he realises that he's in love with Rory Landon.

At first, Rory doesn't mind being away from home.

They're training and following their dreams, and in two year time they'll be at the Olympics, she knows it.

But then, her sister is born, and Rory can't even go home to see her.

Instead, she has to go to practice where their coach, Mildred Grubb, yells at them for not working hard enough (even though Rory's working as hard as she possibly can) and she just cracks.

They do their routine again and Rory puts in her all and then she goes into the changing and cries.

She's not sure how long she's in there, alone, before Chase finds her, but when he does, it's not long until she calms down. She tells him everything, all about her sister and how much she misses home, and he tells her about his brother and how he gave up figure skating because he missed home too much.

He absolutely hates crying but he's still always able to calm her down. She's been spending just about every moment with him for the past 5 years. It's hard to imagine not being near him.

And when she isn't near him, she wishes she is.

After she's calmed down, they go back home (if you can even call it that) and she has to remind herself that this is her dream, to go to the Olympics, and all of that training will be worth it soon.

They're 18 years old and in PyeongChang and Chase has never been more in love with Rory.

They're about to go out on the ice and compete in the short dance and she's so nervous, he can tell. She's biting her lip and fidgeting and he just wants to go over to where she is waiting on the side of the rink and kiss her.

But he doesn't because that would be a terrible idea and it would make her even more nervous then she already is.

Instead, he wraps her up in his arms for their before skate hug, a ritual they had for forever so that they can sync up their breathing and be in total unison on the ice. Once they didn't do it and they got bronze in a competition that they usually could have very easily won gold.

Chase can feel her calming down in his arms.

"We're going to be amazing." He whispers into her ear and she smiles.

They have this thing that they do while competing where they'll whisper instructions to one another to keep each other grounded as they skate. It's so much pressure and they've found that it's easier to skate when they can talk to one another.

Tonight though, they don't have to.

Their short program is amazing and they're so incredibly in sync.

He can tell that it's an amazing score as soon as they step off the ice, and it is. They're only second to the team from Canada and only by 1 point.

So they go into the free dance not necessarily completely confident (he doubts anyone is every completely confident during their first Olympics) but not nearly as nervous as they were before.

"You ready?" He asks as they skate out onto the ice for the practice right before the event.

She grins, "Ready as I'll ever be."

He grins too.

Their free dance practically perfect in every way.

Their twirl sequence is beautiful and all of their lifts are amazing.

At the end, after the programs is finished, he pulls her up into his arms and lifts her off the ice all while she giggles.

He desperately wants to kiss her.

"We did it Rory!" He yells, pushing her barely far enough away from him so that she can look her in the eyes.

She's grinning so widely and looks a bit like she's about to cry, "We did it!" She yells back before pushing herself back close to him for another full hug.

They do their bows and somehow get off the ice all wrapped up in one another. They're breathing hard and grinning because everything has gone so well. The crowd is still cheering and throwing things from the stands and neither of them ever want this moment to end.

He's holding onto her and he never wants to let go as they walk together to the waiting area with their coaches to wait for their score.

And when they recieve it, that feeling knowing they've won, he never wants to forget it. He pulls her in again but this time he just can't help it.

He kisses her.

And she doesn't push him away even though they're on live, national tv. Instead, she somehow pulls him closer and smiles against his lips.

"We've won." He says, resting his forehead against hers and breathing hard.

"Not yet." She says, but she's smiling wide, and at this point, the gold medal is theirs.

"We've won." He repeats and rolls her eyes, pressing her head against his chest.

"I love you," He whispers in her ear and she can practically feel her grinning.

"I love you too."

If Rory is being completely honest, she doesn't remember much after her gold winning free dance in the PyeongChang Olympic games. All she really remembers is that look on Chase's face after they'd realised they'd won and that feeling of immense pride.

But the thing that stands out most to her when she looks back on that moment is when Chase Turnleaf kissed her and when she kissed him back.

How they can't stop smiling, beaming at one another because they'd just won a gold medal.

(And because they're in love.)

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Thanks for reading and please leave me a review!


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